The Enchanted Forest
by Yaoi8293
Summary: Bolin lives in a forest with his protectvie "parent" and has been living their for as long as he can remember. His best friend visits him from time to time, something strange is brewing. And when Bolin meets a stranger in the forest things suddenly change and suddenly Bolin is thrust into an unfamiliar world. *this is a rewrite of my original fic of the same name*


A/N: Hi lovlies heres the rewrite I promised!

A terrible tempest raged in the background, thunder rang through the halls, as the King and Queen of Gaia laid their son down to rest. The prince, Bolin, yawned as he was tucked into bed, only a few weeks old. He smiled up at his loving parents before closing his jade eyes, allowing sleep to take him into it clutches. His face was peaceful as he drifted off, and his parents smiled at each other, happy about the little bundle of joy that the spirits had given him. Leaving him with the servants to tend to his needs, should they arise, the couple walked back to their bedroom to take a well deserved rest. As they opened the door the coupled walked in to find a lantern lit and their top advisor sitting on their bed.

"Oh! Well good evening Zolt, we didn't expect to see you this night" Bolin's mother said, a bit of confusion in her voice.

"Zolt, to what do we owe the pleasure of this visit so late in the evening?" Bolin's father asked happily.

Zolt had been the King's personal pick for counsel, they had grown up together and Bolin had enjoyed his company, even if he was the son of one of the servants. When he was married, Zolt was his best man, and at the birth of his son, Zolt had been there, and was named godfather and, by extension, King should both of Bolin's parents die and he is too young to rule. "Well sire, I was just thinking -"

The king sighed rather loudly, cutting off Zolt mid sentence. "Zolt, if you're thinking of expanding the kingdom into his territory, it's out of the question. We are perfectly fine as we are, we have enough food to feed all of our hungry to excess and enough water to last us for centuries to come, it would be unwise to cross our allies."

"But sire, for months they have been showing signs of resistance to the treaty you yourself signed. If they attack-"

"Which they will not," the king said, rather annoyed. "But if it will help you rest easy I shall meet with their king tomorrow to put an end to this madness."

"I thought you would say something like that," Zolt said, an exhausted sigh, "Which is why I talked to him for you today. Apparently, he has discovered the land to our east and wishes to have control of it. Land that has been foretold to have a great power emanating deep within it."

"You did tell him that there is no great power in that land, right Zolt? You did tell him about the numerous expeditions we have made to that land and how after each expedition it was determined that nothing of interest was there, right? You did tell him these things right?"

Zolt was silent for a moment, "Well -"

Another heavy sigh escaped from the King as he turned to his wife. "Don't worry honey, I'll go to their kingdom tomorrow and straighten this whole mess out." Turning back to Zolt the King said,"Zolt, it has been a long day let us continue this conversation when the sun is in the sky and I am not weary from the days work."

Zolt, stood unmoving.

"Zolt -"

"Sire, there have been new, 'developments' since we last spoke about the forest. When I spoke to their King, he informed me of some information I was not aware of. For you see, every expedition mounted has ended with our men coming back and saying that they had no memory of anything past the cavern that leads to the forest. And those that did remember anything reported seeing a creature with blue eyes, but they believed it to be some sort of raccoon-fox."

"Zolt I am aware of this, which is why I halted all expeditions, if there was something worthwhile there, someone would know something more."

"Well yes, and at first I agreed with you, but then he informed of a little known secret. The forest there has a guardian there, a very powerful one at that. He also informed me that the guardians are on a 1000 year cycle which ends exactly 19 years from 3 weeks ago. If no new guardian has been chosen, the forest could be ripe for the taking, and in order to control this power, he needs control of our Kingdom. He was very adamant about taking over our Kingdom and seemed completely resistant to any sort of compromise."

"Even if what you say is true, that power is not for us, it is for us to protect from falling into the wrong hands. You seem to misunderstand what our expeditions there were for. They were to confirm its existence, not to claim it for our own as it is not ours for the taking, if it is there it belongs to the spirits, not to any human."

Zolt frowned, "Im sorry that you believe that, for you see, there was one compromise he was willing to make."

The King nodded, "Go on."

"He agreed to not bother our land If I agreed to help him, all I had to do was 'take care of' the people standing in his way."

"Surely you declined Zolt!" The queen said, concern on her face.

"I did, told him the he was crazy and that I would never betray the King, but then I realized, I essentially run this kingdom, you come to me for all of your problems, and I am the one who fixes them, yet when it comes time for praise I am expected to sit quietly in the shadows. So I thought to myself, why shouldn't I cut out the middleman?"

"Cut the middleman out? Why Zolt you can't be serious! The king has been there your whole life! You can't just cut him out of your life! You are best friends."

"We, were," Zolt said, his gaze unwavering. " But times have changed. The king has become nothing more than a bumbling oaf, its time this kingdom had a true ruler, who will do what is best for the Kingdom, Lightning?" A small yellow dragon flew from behind Zolt and landed on his shoulder, a toothy grin evident on its face.

"This is madness, GUARDS!" The king yelled "I will have you thrown in the dungeon for treason!" The king said turning, only to find that the door had been closed behind them and no one was coming to through the door.

"I think, if you had time to ask, you'd discover that your guards feel the same way that I do,." Zolt said, his hands still calmly resting behind his back. Looking at the dragon on his shoulder he uttered a single word, "Kill."

From outside the room, shrieks could be heard that seemed to reverberate throughout the castle. Followed shortly by two soft thumps. Opening the door, Zolt stepped out and looked to the guard, "Dispose of the bodies, I'll handle the brat." Zolt left the room, walking swiftly to the child's quarters.

Arriving at the nursery, Zolt noticed that something was wrong, the child's cradle was there, but there was no baby. He had made it very clear that no one, was to touch the child except for him. No one. "GUARDS!" He screamed. In approximately 10 seconds, three guards entered the room.

"I thought I made it very clear that no one was to enter this room after they king and queen left."

"You did my lord" One of the braver guards said after a momentary pause. .

"Then where is the baby!" Zolt yelled pointing at the empty cradle.

Silence.

"Let me make something very clear to you all, if that child is not found by sun-up, there will be another one of you joining the late King and Queen, now go! Find the child!."

A small boy held a bundle of blankets, in his arms walking due east from the castle. He did, not hear the shrieks that came from the kings quarters. He definitely did not know that the advisor and soon-to-be-king, Zolt, was looking for the baby Bolin, in fact the boy didn't know where he was going, all he knew was that he was supposed to take this child east, and fast. He didn't know why he was stealing the child only that when the spirits had called upon him, they had made it very important that he move immediately. So only moments before, he managed to sneak in and grab the child he'd been told to grab and sneak out, grabbing some extra blankets from the laundry room before he left. Life as a pickpocket had taught him how to get in and get out quickly and undetected.

The boy arrived at the eastern exit of the Kingdom and continued running, bundle still held tightly in his hands. Normally he would have been exhausted as his 8 year old body hadn't been prepared to carry such a heavy child, and frankly, the kingdom was not a small place. But the spirits must have given him the energy he needed as he was continuing along as if he'd been carrying a feather. Slowly but surely he arrived at his destination, an abandoned cavern. Now wait, a deep soothing voice, sounding almost like velvet to the boys ears. No sooner than five minutes later did a strange creature arrive.

The creature was covered in fur and had a mostly white face with and orange body with black bands towards it tail. It had no legs and a black nose with solid black beady eyes. It was a rather long from snout to tail and the widest part of its body was larger than any man he'd seen. He grabbed the bundle tighter, he was not going to let this creature take it away if it was the last thing he did.

The creature approached the boy his first instinct was to run but he was unable to move, his legs paralyzed. The creature spoke with a deep voice that almost sounded like a growl, "Thank you for your assistance Mako, because of you, the prince will live to see another day." The creature said.

Mako hadn't known he was holding prince Bolin, and now he was fearful that he would be killed or hanged for his treasonous act.

"Do not fret young one, no one will ever know that you were the one who stole the prince away, nor will they ever know you were here."

How was this creature doing this reading his mind. Mako opened his mouth to speak, to tell the creature to go away and that he would not allow the child to be taken by some monster.

"Oh, where I my manners, my name is Pabu, guardian of this land, I was the one who summoned you here, the one who showed you the path to rescue this child. There have been some grave changes to the kingdom and the prince must not be allowed to perish. If you would please, leave the child where you are."

Mako bowed respectfully and placed the bundle on the ground, it would be unwise to cross one of the ancient guardians that he'd heard of in legends far older than their kingdom. However, he was still scared and he felt very protective of the newborn baby. "M-may I come visit him?" He asked, knees shaking.

Pabu, paused its gaze unwavering. "You may come here once at the end of each lunar cycle, granted that you come alone and tell no one of the child's location."

Mako nodded in acceptance, to afraid to speak.

"Very well then, you may leave."

Mako wasn't sure what happened next, but for a moment, he saw a blue light encasing him and then suddenly he was back in his room, next to his bed. He crawled in and immediately fell asleep as the adrenaline drained from his body.

Pabu turned its attention back to the swaddled baby. The baby was awake and staring back at Pabu. The child wasn't afraid of Pabu like Mako had been, but instead watched Pabu intensely, trying to determine what he was seeing. Pabu's eyes glowed a blue color as it stared at the newborn baby. By some unseen force, the baby was lifted gently into the air and was rocked slowly, imitating the motion of a mother rocking her baby to sleep. As the snake-fox slithered away, eyes still glowing, the baby floated gently behind it. Bolin made a contented noise, slowly closing his green eyes as he drifted into a nice deep sleep. He liked this snake thing.


End file.
